Air conditioning is a convenience that is ubiquitous in modern society. Within the context of the instant application, ‘air conditioning’ can be understood to refer to the controlling of the properties of air—especially temperature—within a defined space, and is inclusive of both the heating and cooling of air (although note that ‘air conditioning’ is sometimes colloquially interpreted not to refer to heating—i.e. heating is sometimes colloquially understood to be separate from air conditioning). Air conditioning can be implemented using any of a variety of devices, and is typically used, for instance, to help create comfortable indoor environments. Importantly, one critical application for air conditioning is refrigeration, which is generally used to preserve/elongate the shelf life of foods. Typical air conditioning systems—including refrigerators—employ a ‘vapor-compression’ cycle to cool a targeted space. In a ‘vapor-compression’ cycle, a working fluid (e.g. a refrigerant) is circulated proximate the targeted space that is to be cooled, and is made to undergo iterative phase changes to continually remove heat from the targeted space and eject it outside of the targeted space.
Vapor-compression cycles are typically implemented via a compressor, an expansion valve, an evaporator, and a condenser, all operatively connected via piping that facilitates the circulation of a working fluid. Typically, the working fluid—in its liquid phase—is made to pass through the expansion valve and thereby experiences a pressure drop, and a corresponding temperature drop. The working fluid—typically then in a saturated fluid phase—subsequently passes through the evaporator, which is the target of the cooling efforts. This saturated fluid absorbs heat from the evaporator, and consequently is made to substantially evaporate into a vapor phase. The substantially vapor phase working fluid then passes through a compressor where it is compressed to a higher pressure, and relatedly a higher temperature. Thereafter, the high pressure, high temperature vapor phase working fluid passes through a condenser, where it releases heat outside of the evaporator and thereby condenses into a liquid phase working fluid, which can be re-circulated. Accordingly, it is enumerated how vapor-compression cycles are generally implemented to remove heat from a targeted space.